What to expect from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo in E3 this year

In just two days, E3 2014 is opening its curtains to the general public. Coming Monday, loads of news, reveals and interesting stuff will start leaking out, especially from the Big Three video gaming publishers; Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

All companies have a battle plan for E3, and VentureBeat has published a nice article with all the latest information about what to expect from each company. Here’s a small part of the article to get you started:

And while most of us look forward to E3 for the surprises (which wouldn’t be all that surprising if we could guess them), we can use our brains to get a pretty decent idea of what to expect from the big three video game publishers — Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo — during their press conferences and broadcasts.

Microsoft

One thing is clear since last year’s E3: It’s all about the games. In 2013, Microsoft decided to focus on the multimedia features of its then-upcoming system, the Xbox One, while Sony promoted the PlayStation 4 by focusing on games. Since both systems launched last November, Sony’s approach has resulted in more sales.

Microsoft has already started to copy Sony’s approach, notably by creating a Xbox One package that doesn’t come with the motion and voice-sensitive Kinect (which goes on sale Monday). While Microsoft initially touted the Kinect as an essential part of the Xbox One experience, it’s now giving gamers the option to save $100 and skip out on voice commands and motion-tracking, all while Microsoft’s marketing begins to focus back on software.